1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of an image recording apparatus such as an inkjet printer, a printer of a silver halide photographing system, a printer of a non-silver halide photographing system such as an electrophotographic system, a photographing apparatus and the like, and more particularly, to supply for the image recording apparatus which is capable of allowing the image recording apparatus to stably exhibit the predetermined performance thereof, a method of determining the supply and a method of manufacturing the supply.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications Nos. 48(1973)-9622, 54(1979)-51837 and the like disclose an inkjet printer which is arranged such that ink is heated with pulses and partly vaporized rapidly and an ink droplet is ejected from an orifice by the expansion force of the vaporized ink.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications Nos. 5(1993)-50601, 11(1999)-207956 and the like disclose an inkjet printer arranged such that a diaphragm (oscillating sheet) is disposed in an ink chamber and oscillated by static electricity, a piezo element or the like so as to eject an ink droplet from a nozzle by the oscillation.
These inkjet printers have been widely used as printers for various applications such as a color printer for personal computers and the like because they are advantageous in that their cost is relatively low and they can easily be handled and provide an image of good quality.
In various types of printers and image recording apparatuses including these inkjet printers, it is important that various types of supplies such as consumable goods that are mounted thereon be appropriate supplies in order for them to sufficiently and stably exhibit a predetermined performance.
For example, in the above-described inkjet printer, if an ink tank containing ink the validity of which has expired (hereinafter referred to simply as “ink tank the validity of which has expired” for convenience) or an ink tank corresponding to a different type of a printer is mounted on the aforementioned inkjet printers, they cannot exhibit the predetermined performances and various disadvantages, for example, the output of an inappropriate image with low image quality, the occurrence of troubles such as the clogging of an ink path, a nozzle and the like are generated.
To cope with these problems, there has been desired to realize a method of appropriately and effectively preventing supplies such as a consumables accommodation body, which does not appropriately correspond to a printer and the like, for example, an ink tank the validity of which has expired from being mounted (by mistake) on a printer and the like.